This collection of short stories was written in the aftermath of the 1995 earthquake in Kobe. I don’t remember the event all that well, but it was apparently quite a traumatic experience in Japanese life - perhaps similar, in some ways, to the Oklahoma City bombing in American life (though obviously very different in key respects.) In these short stories Murakami examines the event from multiple unusual angles, all of them at something of a distance. There are no actual survivors here, nor anyone who even seems to know a victim of the quakes. The stories are mostly realistic, with a touch of the surreal, and I very much appreciated that tone. I think it must have matched what many Japanese adults felt in the days and weeks following the earthquake: the event seems terrifyingly unreal, yet at the same time, all-too-real. The language throughout is plain, matter-of-fact, almost echoing Hemingway, yet with considerably more feeling; the alienation and disillusionment so common in these characters just about bleeds through the pages.

The stories are each beautiful in their own way, but I think the last one, “honey pie”, is probably my favorite. As sweet as its title implies, it is perhaps a little too sentimental. But it is so full of intimate moments that are well-drawn without going over the top, it’s a little difficult to resist.

The collection is a very quick read, and a really interesting portrayal into the Japanese psyche as it approached the end of the millennium.